Save as PDFArchpastor Message of the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Sts. Peter and Paul Church of the Russian Orthodox Church in North Star.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I heartily congratulate all of you with the feast of Prime Apostles, Sts. Peter and Paul and 75th anniversary of the church in honor of these Saints in North Star!
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the most northern parish and church in Canada. Christians always tried to have a church for praying. This church was built in 1935 seven hundred kilometres to the North of Edmonton in hard years of great depression. But in those years our people had great faith in God. The faith in God gave strength to the first generation of settlers in far and foreign land to build churches for praying. Having built the church your forefathers were happy and thanked God for possibility of spending Sundays in the Church. “I rejoiced that they said to me: Let us go to the house of the Lord” they repeated the words of the ancient righteous man, Prophet David. (Ps. 122:1)
The very Slavic word “Zerkov” like the English word “Church” originated from the Greek word “Kiriakon” which means “the House of the Lord”. It is not only the building made of stone or wood. The House of the Lord is made up of “living stones”, that is of us, Christians.
The Lord is present in the Church invisibly and hears our prayers as Christ said “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst” (Mt.18:20). Here “heavenly Powers serve invisibly with us”. Therefore, we say that a church is a piece of Heaven on the earth or an island of the Kingdom of Heaven.
When God is present in the church, then the church becomes the desert one of all other buildings on the earth. When the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the church, then even the smallest church at this time becomes wider than Heavens.
According to our Nicene Creed we are the Church not only of Christ but also of the Apostles. Why? Because it is the Apostles who spread the teaching of Christ and founded Churches all over the world. Today each of us, any member of the Church must be like the Apostles, God’s envoys in this world.
Look at the icon of Sts. Apostles in the centre of the church. In the icon the Apostle Peter holds keys. The keys are symbol of penitence which opens the doors of the Kingdom of God to us.
And the Apostle Paul holds a sword in his hands. A sharp sword is an image of God’s word. We, as warriors of spirit, must fight with devil and sins with the help of God’s word. Both Apostles have open books in their hands – a symbol of teaching which they preached. The Apostles show us those messages, letters which they had written to all Christians. We, as the disciples of Christ, must read them constantly because there is mine of spiritual wisdom in the Holy Scripture.
Let each of us be the living Church of God, the Church of the Holy Spirit and let our love to Invisible God show itself in care of His visible House!
I bow down to all those who built this church and pray for those builders and parishioners of this church who are buried in the churchyard and their souls rejoice with us today!
I thank the rector of the church Father George for his zealous service and all those who are praying with us today, who constantly take care of our church by their prayers, sacrifice and work and also helped in the organization of today’s feast. From all my heart I wish all of you God’s grace, spiritual and bodily strength for many and good years! Let the protection of God be always over this holy place, the church and all those living in this place!
Iov, Bishop of Kashira, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in Canada.
July 11, 2010